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Joined: 1/26/2005 From: Planning the end of the world, well out to 2023!Status: offline

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ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

JeffK: I've done non-base bombardments before, so I think they're possible. But they aren't working for me in the two coastal hexes between Ramree Island and Akyab. I've tried a dozen times with now luck.

I might try attacking the same hexes, I did look at the hexsides (unless pwhex has been tinkered with in your mod??) but they are blue, I thought Andrew B might have taken the muddy/mangrove coastline into account.

I played 5 trials using 2 TF's each with 2BB, 2CA and 6 DD and 1 TF with 3CL and 6 DD. First try I could get 1 of the BB TF to bombard both 54,49 and 54,47 (nth and sth of ramree) moving directly from 1 hex to the other. I couldnt get any of the other 14 attempts to work, even replicating the ships of the succesful TF.

I cant be sure but I suspect there is something weird about the Burma coast. I have tried to bombard troops out of bases using the IJN along there before (from memory the hexes north of akyab) and I could never get it to work. Bombarding the base hexes works fine however.

Bay of Bengal: Nicely quiet. A USN fleet boat duds against CVE Chuyo (shown with nine escorting DDs) down in the Malacca Straits. Allied troops will begin emerging from the jungle in about four days, which will initiate the effort to threat the Japanese LOC in Burma.

Pacific: I finally decided to stand down the Aluetians operation completely. I've chosen the new prospective targets. The Aluetians component at Pearl begins prepping for the new targets (more about that later). I wanted to take advantage of prep time while my carriers are in dry dock at Pearl (25 more days). Wasp departs SF for Pearl tonight. Hornet departs Balboa for Pearl tonight. Some transports will leave West Coast for Pearl. The Aluetians componnet at West Coast bases will remain there as the core for the eventual (1943) moves in CenPac, though I'll detach some infantry to assist with the new operation. The Aluetians will now serve as a feinting target, though Bay of Bengal remains the key to the Allied moves (by drawing John's attention, I'm hoping).

Bay of Bengal: No major enemy moves. A flight of 12 Tojos sweeps Ramree but fails - three are downed and two lost to ops. The Allies lost one P-40E to ops somewhere on the map, but even if that was at Ramree, this small battle reflects the difficulty John is having in using his Tojos effectively. (I still think John is coming....short or medium term now.)

NoPac: To keep up appearances in NoPac, two small AA battalions are loading at Seattle. One goes to Kodiak, one to Anchorage. Two more TFs comprised of some of some good transports departs Seattle for Los Angeles.

CenPac: A small combat TF flagged by CA San Fran departs Pearl for Tahiti. It's mission for the next sixty days is to protect some of the amphibious shipping that will be come south in preparation for the next big amphibious operation. The first group of land units (four small ones) are boarding transports for the trip south. I'm sending a "mock" transport TF perhaps 20 hexes north of Pearl as a decoy. Three long-distance DDs will steam to Midway from Pearl. From there, I intend to use them to probe north, towards the Homes Islands, Kuriles and Aluetians to develop information and perhaps tweak John's search perimeter a time or two. I don't want to get too frisky or obvious, so this requires some care.

Oz: Some of the American troops in Oz swap prep to match this new amphibious plan.

Bay of Bengal: The enemy remains quiet. Ramree airfield 54% to level five, and the base has 15k supply. New Orleans TF is temporarily replacing the Vincennes TF as the main protector of Ramree. Vincennes TF retiring to Chittagong to replenish torps.

Burma: A UK brigade is in the open now and will move laterally. I want to gauge John's reaction while posing a threat to his LOC. More UK troops will emerge from the jungle in the coming days, but the Americans and Australians are some time away.

NoPac: A fair bit of a Allied shipping moving from Seattle towards Anchorage and Kodiak to "keep up appearances." SigInt that 31st Regiment is inbound to Umnak. CVE Copahee to depart Seattle tonight.

The Rest of the Pacific: SigInt that 6th IJA Div. is at Kusiae. No SigInt of any enemy activity in the theater I plan to hit in perhaps 60 days (nor at several other places that are on my radar). Allied transports will begin leaving Pearl in two days - lots and lots of transport TFs that will be split up and staggered. The American carriers will be ready to depart in 22 days. HQ units are prepping, etc.

Don't know about your mod, but in stock scenario 1 the IJA 6th Division is one of the nasty ones with 80 experience and a very good commander. You will need to disrupt it a lot before you attack it directly.

_____________________________

No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth

A spectacular real-life day. I did a solo 11-mile hiking trip in the Cohutta Wilderness. The route taken including 18 fordings of the swollen Conasauga River followed by a 2100-foot ascent up Tearbritches Trail to the summit of Bald Mountain. Tearbritches is the toughest trail I've ever done - harder even than the Grand Canyon's North Kaibab Trail - but I made it without stopping. The main objective today was birdwatching. The birds cooperated - ended up with 36 species including roughed grouse, chestnut-sided warbler, rose-breasted grosbeak, and a host of sweet-singing migrants. I didn't see another soul, which was odd considering it's spring break in our area. A fabulous day, and I'll sleep well tonight.

Bay of Bengal: Uh oh, sweeps by three big Tojo flights totaling in excess of 100 fighters tear into my CAP over Ramree. The Allies lose 52 fighters - mainly P-40E - and down only 10 Tojo (plus 10 Kates that sortied against a couple of small ships, sinking an AVP in the process). Ramree's airfield is at 4.64. I really want to get it up to five, so I'm going to keep fighting. I've moved away the Warhawks and brought in two Hurricane squadrons and a Airacobra squadron. Also, I reduced range of Akyab's fighters to keep my Warhawks there from trying to bleedover CAP. Ramree has 16k supply. The main thing I have to do is protect my fighter squadrons enough to keep Akyab and it's shipping safe. That, in turn, will probably keep Ramree up and running since I can feed in supply via fast transport. Alot going on!

Burma: Three Allied units are in the open now. John is going to attend to them with his bombers. I'm not going to LRCAP them (at least not yet) as I want to see how things shake out a few days.

NoPac: Enemy subs tangle with an Allied DD at Prince Rupert and another near Midway. I want to slowly increase the appearance of activity in the NoPac region, so these little encounters should be helpful.

CenPac: More troops loading at Pearl for the trip south.

Oz: Certain troops are prepping for certain locations as the Allies continue to prepare to take the offensive somewhere, sometime, in the Pacific.

Bay of Bengal: More big Tojo sweeps - one squadon vs. Ramree and two vs. Akyab (the first time John has tested my big base). This time the Allies do much beter, downing roughly 20 Tojo while losing 30 of there own (again, mostly P-40E over Akyab). Interestingly, my fresh P-38F squadron (7 of them are operational now as the crew get them ready to fly) didn't suffer any losses on the day. My biggest worry is figher pools and the possibility that John might weaken my CAP numbers enough to make a combined KB and land-based attack effective. Big stakes, but this is what I wanted.

Burma: John is going to take the northernmost hex in my line of jungle hexes. It's occuped by BFF brigade. The Allies have been moving south through the chain, weakening the north hexes in favor of an attack in the south. John can have the north, but surely he wouldn't commit divisions way up there.

Pacific: I won't reveal the objective yet. Not sure why, just not ready to. It's no big deal and who knows what might happen to affect the plans. I think it'll be sixty days before I have everything in place (since my carriers at Pearl still have 20 days left on upgrades). Wasp and Hornet are heading directly to Tahiti rather than coming to Pearl. Two turns back, the map briefly showed a sea hex near Tokyo just filled up with IJN TF icons - the icons were between two American subs, so I think that had something to do with this. I'm just guessing this might be the KB heading out to raid. My guess would be NoPac or the sea lanes in or around Pearl, so I want to get as much of my transports loaded and "out of Dodge" as soon as I can. Already, two big TFs have left (I'm staggering them) with many more yet to come.

I was thinking like CB - Marcus or Wake. A scary move for John and is consistent with CR's stated goal of a CENPAC campaign. Then again, CR is a bit more conservative. Could be something like Guadalcanal or Tulagi. Not too far afield but threatens the SLoC of John's conquests in the Noumea/Luganville area.

Bay of Bengal: The Tojos concentrate on Ramree, getting the best of the small Allied CAP. Losses for both sides are light. The airfield is at 4.82. Two more days needed to boost it to five, so the P-38Fs are going there. Supply up to 18k. No sign of major enemy shipping come forward.

Burma: Both sides are jockeying for position.

CenPac: 1st Marine Division leaves Pearl tonight, as do many other units.

SigInt: Not the slightest whiff of enemy activity in the bases I'm targeting.

Playing Coy with the Objective: One reason I haven't gone into detail about the objective is the immense amount of thought, planning, and typing I did as I was trying to pull together the Aluetians operation. All that work for nothing! The same thing might happen again, because like any major amphibious operation in '42, I'm not going to risk my carriers unless I know the KB is far away. And whether I'll know that remains to be seen.

Bay of Bengal: Kates sortie in number against shipping in and near Ramree (for some reason, two xAKL decided to move past Ramree; their captains don't get to repeat the mistake as they went down with their ships). On the day, Japan lost 28 Kates and 12 Zeroes. A carrier force of some sort is on the west side of Port Blair, so it appears that a raid is coming. Ramree airfield goes to level five tomorrow (barring an effective bombing raid). John mostly stood down the Tojos on the 27th - though Allied 4EB downed a couple.

Burma: I'll post a map later today, but right now it's just both sides jockeying for position. It's going to take awhile as most of the jockeying is occuring in jungle hexes. In short, the Allied are shifting their big divisions - 2nd UK, 41st US, and the two Aussies, further south.

Pacific: A train of troop transports departed Pearl over the past week. A few more will follow in a few days, once more AP and xAP reach the base. Lots of "fake" transport TFs have left a variety of bases - Pearl, Seattle, etc . - in a variety of directions to create some noise and confuse the issue.

Assuming those xAKLs were ordered to go to Ramree, the only reason I can think of for them to go south of there is the "TF Fleeing from XYZ threat" message. If that was the case, and the air threat was from the west near Port Blair, it suggests there was a surface threat north of them?

_____________________________

No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth

Playing Coy with the Objective: One reason I haven't gone into detail about the objective is the immense amount of thought, planning, and typing I did as I was trying to pull together the Aleutians operation. All that work for nothing! The same thing might happen again, because like any major amphibious operation in '42, I'm not going to risk my carriers unless I know the KB is far away. And whether I'll know that remains to be seen.

Since John 3rd seems to love running towards whatever attack with everything you got, shouldn't it be pretty easy to entice him away? The land offensive in Burma probably won't lead to him committing KB, but landing in the Andamans, or the islands off Sumatra would probably do the trick. There probably are little defended outposts that you could invade there, and he will have to react to those moves.

Bay of Bengal: Enemy carriers still posted right by the west shore of Andaman Island - no movement, meaning John's either gathering his forces there or he's posted his ships there as some kind of warning or deterrent. Big Tojo sweeps over Ramree - 10 Tojos downed but the Allies lose perhaps 25 fighters of all kinds. Ramree Island airfield goes to level 5.

Pacific: That long line of ships departing Pearl (and another line departing Los Angeles) is growing longer.

I've Lost that Knowing Feeling: The situation in the Bay of Bengal is very complex. I'm not sure what John's thinking is. I've long thought that the presence of essentially the entire RN (enhanced by American ships) would either draw a massive response or perhaps even provoke John into a sizeable landing at Ceylon or on the mainland. Now I'm beginning to wonder if John isn't convinced that the Allies have martialled a titanic force to invade Port Blair or Moulmein. He seems to have deployed his forces defensively. Eventually he's going to conclude that I'm not moving forward there, so I've got to keep fighting as hard as I can to keep Ramree open and to advance troops down the coast road in an offensive posture. I don't want John to turn his thoughts elsewhere (except for the Aluetians and western Oz, which I do want him to consider in the coming weeks.) I'm guessing the Allies are 45 days away from the move I hope to pull off - that's still alot of time for John to figure out what I'm up to.

John doesn't mess around, if he's not 100% ready to commit, he'll wait until he thinks he has sufficient force to launch an overwhelming attack.....I don't think this is cause for concern, actually, it could be working well in your favor.

There is still a long war to fight, so don't get too worried - you're not committing anything that you can't afford to lose.

Yes, the Bay of Bengal is one of those nice "either/or" sitautions. I think John will rise to the bait eventually, but on the off chance he doesn't the Allies will continue to consolidate a very good position there.

The main question continues to be whether the Allies will be in position to strike elsewhere if/when John does attack in the Bay. I think there's a decent chance John won't commit the KB in the Bay. If not, my best shot is to draw his attention to the Aleutians just before I move on the place I wanna move.

You're going to pull a moon shot on Sumatra, aren't you :) Get him distracted between western oz and Burma and then hit him in the place he'll assume is invincible because you're already drawing his attention to the neighborhood ;)

Bay of Bengal: The carrier TF that was posted near Andaman Island has disappeared from my patrol screen. Small actions over Ramree again, with John sinking an xAK and losing 12 aircraft (six Kates, six Zeroes).

Burma: Forces continue to jockey. An IJ tank division attacked three UK brigades and the East African brigade in an open hex. The tanks got roughed up. The Allies will counterattack tomorrow, but more IJ troops may arrive. Cox airfield goes to level six. Akyab will follow in a day or two.

NoPac: IJN subs sank two xAK near Seward. Lots of Allied shipping in this region - mostly carrying supply or small AA units to Anchorage and Kodiak to keep up appearances. 11th SeaBees is heading to a dot hex west of Kodiak. This is meant to ramp up the appearance of aggression. I may also convert a Mohawk squadron to precious P-38Fs to provide LRCAP, solely to "impress" John.

Pacific: The bulk of the combat AV troops are now well out of Pearl and LA (more support troops need to make the trip, but if push came to shove the group already gone is sufficient for invasion purposes). The two upgrading CVs at Pearl require 15 more days. By the time they're ready to go, the amphibious TFs should be at least halfway to where I want them to be when the carriers catch up. (Pardon my being coy.)

Spidey Senses: John mentioned a couple of turns that his spidey senses were tingling. He's either feeling this in connection with Bay of Bengal or the Aleutians, in which case my efforts are bearing fruit, or somewhere else, in which case he's probably imaginging things. I am shifting around troops in Oz - bringing new "small units" to certain forward bases while extracting major units that I hope to use offensively in the next few months, but as best I can tell John hasn't caught a whiff of these particular minor moves. He's not reconning SW Oz at all.